


The Tenth Summer

by floatingcotton



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-25
Updated: 2016-12-11
Packaged: 2018-08-27 00:17:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,396
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8380048
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/floatingcotton/pseuds/floatingcotton
Summary: Annabeth and Reyna have been coming to Camp Half-Blood longer than anybody else. They became friends easily and have been inseparable since they were seven. During the summers, at least. But when their tenth summer at the camp rolls around, Annabeth begins to wonder if she wants something more than a friendship with Reyna. But what if she doesn't feel the same way? Could she risk destroying her friendship with the only best friend she's ever had?





	1. First Day

Annabeth Chase stepped out of her father's car before he could embarrass her further. It was the beginning of June, and Annabeth was back at Camp Half-Blood for another summer.  


She had been coming to the camp since she was seven years old; longer than almost anybody else. Camp Half-Blood was a self-proclaimed camp for troubled kids. No, not kids that steal or have juvy records. Camp Half-Blood was a place families with special circumstances sent their kids. It was essentially a summer camp, but it was interspersed with activites meant to help the kids cope with shifts in the typical family dynamic. Common cases were kids with two moms, a single parent, or step-parents. Annabeth was there for the last reason. When her father remarried and had two more kids, Annabeth hadn't taken it so well. After she ran away, a friend of her parents had suggested they send her to Camp Half-Blood.  


Typical Camp Half-Blood procedure was to recommend two summers for each child. Sometimes, in the more advanced cases, maybe three or four. Annabeth had been coming back for ten years. Technically, they had given her the all clear eight years ago, but she liked the camp. It gave her a break from her real life, and all of her best friends attended the camp as well.  


Annabeth waved good-bye to her father. She clambered up Half-Blood Hill to the entrance to camp. Her bag was starting to weigh her down when someone jumped onto her back, ruining her balance altogether.  


"Oh my God," she exclaimed, dropping her bags in attempt to regain her center of balance. Choppy black hair swung into Annabeth's storm gray eyes. Her own hair was honey blonde, so the dark hair was a dead giveway as to who had jumped on her. "Thalia," she laughed. "Get off of me!"  


"Annie, it's great to see you. God, I was so hoping it was you. Otherwise I'd be known all sumer as the crazy girl who jumped some girl she didn't even know." The old friends laughed in harmony. Thalia slid off the other girl's back to walk beside her. They crested the hill together just as the sun was starting to kiss the horizon. Annabeth and Thalia stood for a moment, admiring the view.  


The camp was quite beautiful, all adorned in Greek architecture. There was this huge blue Victorian house with a white wraparound porch where the two men who ran the camp lived and worked. A dining pavilon with bronze braziers and columns was considered the dining hall. A volleyball pit and climbing wall were just some of the activites the camp boasted. The cabins were set off back towards the woods. Twelve cabins were arranged in an inverted U with about twenty other cabins arranged around that. A strawberry field took center stage in the camp. It was a sprawling expanse of hills and forest and fields.  


After another seven seconds of staring, the girls moved on to the bottom of the hill. They walked to the house, which the campers called the Big House, to sign in. Thalia had recently turned twenty-two and was coming back to be a counselor. Annabeth was only seventeen (soon to be eighteen) and was still a camper. Together, they turned back towards outside only to be stopped by Jason Grace, Thalia's younger brother, and his girlfriend, Piper.  


Thalia and Jason could not have looked more different. Thalia was punk and she knew it. She had spiky black hair with a few strands she had dyed blue. She was pretty petite, her leather jacket was always on, and her pale skin never tanned. Even the bands she listened to only sounded like screeching to everyone else. Jason, on the other hand, looked like your typical Californa surfer guy. He had straight blonde hair, a dark tan all year around, and he was tall and statuesque. The only thing they had in common were their crystal, icy blue eyes. Thalia had once told Annabeth that she and her brother looked so different because while she looked like her father, her brother resembled their mother.  


Their mom was a blonde TV starlet from the eighties who had taken a liking to alcohol early on in Thalia's life. By the time Jason came along, she was a serious danger to both herself and her kids. The pair sometimes claimed they had different fathers. Sure, he was the same guy, but it was their way of making light of the fact that their father had different personalities depending on the day and what drug he was on at that time. In any case, he had left shortly after Jason was born. Thalia had basically raised her brother and, after hearing about the camp from a teacher at her school, she dragged Jason across the country with her to get help. They were amongst a few of the kids who stayed year around because their home situations were deemed too dangerous to ever go back to.  


Piper McLean, Jason's better half, also had a rather unique home situation. Her mother was a gorgeous model who never wanted a child. Her dad was an equally gorgeous movie star that had never quite gotten over losing the love of his life. Piper, in an attempt to garner her father's attention, started stealing things. Small things at first, like lipstick and gum. The stunt that caused him to send her to Camp Half-Blood for counseling involved a lot of her natural charisma and a very expensive BMW. That was all she'd tell anyone.  


Piper and Jason stood in the doorway of the Big House, grinning widely. Piper and Annabeth had grown close the previous summer, Piper's first summer at the camp. She and Jason had started dating two weeks before the summer session was set to end. Though, admittedly, they had secretly liked each other for months beforehand. They had been blisfully happy ever since. Almost disgustingly so, according to their friends.  


"Hey, Pipes!" Annabeth said, running up to give her friend a hug. Piper, though she looked slight, hugged her friend harder than Annabeth would have thought possible.  
"Jason, stop slouching. And while you're at it, here's a mint. I can't believe your girlfriend kisses you when your breath reeks like that! Honestly, Jason, were you raised by wolves?!" Thalia scolded. Piper and Annabeth giggled at Thalia's mothering as they released each other.  


The four friends began to walk across the fields towards the cabins. The campers were sorted into the cabins based upon their familial situation. As in, all the kids with two moms or two dads were put together, all kids that had parents with substance abuse problems were together, and all kids with step parents were together. Annabeth roomed with about fifteen other kids that had either a stepmother or stepfather and had some kind of problem with them.  


As they walked, they were joined by Nico di Angelo and Will Solace. They had also recently started dating since Nico had only just come out. Nico was only fourteen, deathly pale and sickly skinny, with dark hair that hung way into his eyes. He seemed a bit dreary at times, but Annabeth respected the amount of bravery it took for him to come out to them all when everyone knew Nicco was uncomfortable sharing even the tiniest details about his life.  


The few things they did know about Nico only concerned the bare essentials of how he had ended up at camp. His mother, an Italian immigrant, had gotten involved with a mobster. The man was only known by his nickname, Corpse Breath, because it was said that he lived and breathed death. Maria, Nico's mother, fell in love with the gangster against all odds and gave birth to two children: Bianca and Nico. The siblings weren't very old when Maria was killed as an act of revenge towards their father. Devastated, he sent his children away.  


Bianca took care of Nico as best she could as they bounced around from foster home to foster home. Everything had come to a screeching halt when Bianca, trying to protect her friends, was killed by a mugger. Nico came to the camp after that, his social worker hoping it would help him deal with his grief. This summer he was to be joined by a half-sister he hadn't previously known about.  


Hazel Levesque was only a year younger than her brother Nico. This had rubbed him the wrong way at first since that meant his father had moved on fom his mother awfully fast after her death. But upon meeting his sister, Nico had found it impossible to hold that against her. She had warm caramel colored skin, golden brown curls, coffee eyes, and a gentle disposition at all times. Her mother was a fortune teller back at her home in New Orleans. Hazel's mother, Marie, had fallen in love more with the aura of power that surrounded Hazel and Nico's father than the man himself. Their father learned of Marie's pregnancy and fled, still not completely over the death of his wife. He did leave behind a small fortune in precious gems to help support Marie and Hazel. Marie's mental health started to decline the older Hazel got, so that by the time Nico paid her a visit her mother was a danger to be around. It took some convincing, but Nico finally managed to get Hazel to agree to give the camp a try.  


Nico looked nervous about everyone meeting his younger sister. Jason, who had been the first of them to reach out to Nico, told his friend over and over that everything would be fine. Will slipped his hand into his boyfriend's reassuringly.  


Annabeth knew even less about Will than she did about Nico. He looked somewhat like Jason, but he was leaner and his hair was longer and wavier. Will's dad had been a somewhat douchey eighteen year old rich kid with a badass sports car. His mom was just one of the many girls that had fallen for his dad's charm. Except his mom had ended up sixteen, pregnant, and alone. His mom sent him to the camp so he could see that he wasn't the only kid with an unconvential family situation.  


"Have any of you guys seen Reyna? She said she'd be here by now," Annabeth said, glancing at the text messages on her phone that she and Reyna had exchanged the night before.  


All five of them shook their heads. Suddenly, Annabeth's feet were no longer on the grass. She had only just registered that she was being spun around when her feet hit the solid ground once more. Grinning down at her was Percy Jackson.  


Percy was a tall guy with the darkest tan you've ever seen, lean muscles from all the laps he did from being the best swimmer in the state, sea green eyes, and touseled black hair. Percy's dad was a Coast guard captain who had been killed in action when Percy was only two. Percy's mom worked tirelessly to support her son and his good-for-nothing abusive stepdad. Percy's stepdad was the reason his mom had sent him to the camp in the first place. She wanted to keep him safe. Annabeth had once asked Percy why his mom stayed married to the jerk if he was so awful to them. Percy had reluctantly told her that his mom's job didn't provide her with health insurance, but his step-father's did. She stayed married to him so she could protect Percy from harm.  


"Hey," Annabeth laughed, happy to see her friend. If she was being honest, when she had first met Percy when they were twelve she had had a small crush on him. Sometime over the course of the next five years she had gotten over it though, and they were just really good friends now.  


As the now seven of them neared the cabins, Frank Zhang and Leo Valdez joined up with the rest of them. Frank was Chinese-Canadian and had somehow grown into his pudgy baby looks over the ourse of the year in both height and breadth. His parents were both soldiers that had lost their lives overseas in Afghanistan. His grandmother was the one taking care of him now and she had decided the camp would be good for him. Leo's mom had died in a fire in the machine shop where she worked. His father was a bit socially awkward and thought the camp might do his son some good as well.  


They were all there except for Hazel and Reyna. Annabeth had started to worry. Yes, she loved seeing all of her friends, but Reyna was the one she always looked most forward to seeing. After all, they had been at camp longer than anybody and had been friends for ten years.  


Reyna's mother disappeared from their father's house in Puerto Rico, leaving her two daughters (Reyna and her older sister, Hylla) in the hands of their father. Reyna's father was a proud man that couldn't accept that his wife had left him. It started to eat away at him, driving him mad until he was abusive both mentally and physically to his daughters. Hylla and Reyna ran away one night, only to be held captive by the smugglers who were helping to get them to America. The girls learned how to fight, eventually overthrowing and escaping the crew. Reyna's sister supported the two of them, but she sent Reyna to the camp as a kind of therapy.  


Reyna and Annabeth were both only seven years old when they first arrived at camp, younger than everyone else by at least five years. The two were tougher than most second graders though and began a friendship easily. They hadn't been apart for the summer since then. Annabeth was worried about her friend, but split off to her cabin anyway. She only had time to set her bag on her bunk before the campers all made their way to the dining pavilon for dinner. She hoped Reyna would show up soon.


	2. Late to Dinner

Annabeth followed her cabin mates down to the dining pavilion. They jostled each other around, glad to be amongst friends again. Annabeth had to smile when her cabin mates asked her about her younger twin brothers, all of them knowing what little devils they were. She told them the story of how Matthew had tried to flush Bobby's Legos down the toilet after Bobby had kicked Matthew's creation down. Her parents were quite angry to come home to a completely ruined toilet and rapidly flooding bathroom.  


By the time Annabeth had finished her story, she and her friends were at the picnic tables. She moved to the same table she and the others had been sharing for years. Everyone else was already there, save for the still absent Reyna and Hazel.  


"Hey," Thalia waved, snapping her back to attention. The other girl had saved her a seat. Annabeth slid in on Thalia's right, looking around the table at their other friends. Piper and Jason were bent towards each other, whispering to themselves; Nico was searching the crowd with his eyes for any signs of Will or his sister; Frank and Leo were watching as Percy attempted to balance all of the table's silverware on his face. Somehow, the table still felt empty to Annabeth, probably due to the empty spot on her left. Not for the first time, she wondered what was holding Reyna up.  


"Annabeth," Thalia sighed, saying her name in a way that suggested it wasn't the first time she had attempted to get her attention. Annabeth smiled apologetically, but was saved from explaining when the campers were called to attention.  


Two men ran the camp, Mr. D and Mr. C. Mr. D's father was a powerful business man in upstate New York that gave his son one rule; don't mess around with his secretary. Mr. D hadn't been able to control himself, so his father had dealt his punishment dully. Mr. D.'s father had shipped his son off to run a camp he owned in Long Island that specialized in helping kids with special family situations: Camp Half-Blood. Mr. D. was usually quite bitter because of this, but his father would cut him off if he were to quit. Occasionally, Annabeth would catch him quietly comforting a homesick child, and think he wasn't so bad after all. Then he would yell at some sixteen year old for not climbing the climbing wall fast enough, and Annabeth would rethink her opinion all over again.  


Mr. C. was an old friend of Mr. D.'s, yet they seemed as different as day and night. Mr. C. was patient and understanding and charismatic where Mr. D. was loud, obnoxious, and indifferent. No one knew much about Mr. C.'s background, just that he had left his family behind sometime ago as they did not see eye to eye on many things. He had been a history teacher before being asked to help his friend to run the camp. Mr. C. had been bound to a wheelchair for as long as Annabeth had known him, though otherwise he looked like any other middle aged guy: curly brown hair, a shaggy and starting to gray beard, and hazel eyes.  


Annabeth would never admit this to her dad, but sometimes it felt like Mr. C. had been more of a father to her than her real dad had ever been.  


In any case, the two men walked to the front of the raised dais part of the pavilion where they took their meals. Mr. D. cupped his hands around his mouth, yelling, "SILENCE!" The man didn't look like much--a portly shape covered by loudly printed Hawaiian shirts didn't exactly scream threatening presence--but his booming voice and manipulation skills more than compensated.  


Mr. C., taking the more subtle approach, took over from there. "Thank you, Mr. D. Where would any of us be without you here to make sure our ears can still register sonic sounds?" The campers all laughed. "Anyway, welcome back everyone! And welcome to all of our new campers. We're so glad you've decided to join us for our summer session this year. We only have a few rules here at camp, and so long as you follow them, we should have no problems. Fair warning, Mr. D. decides the punishments around here, and my old friend has been complaining of aching feet as of late. Back to the rules! Don't go anywhere near the forest without permission to do so by Mr. D. or myself or your counselor. Food is not allowed in the cabins as it attracts ants. Contraband will be confiscated immediately if found. Lastly, stick to your schedule. It will be so much easier for us all if everyone just sticks to their own schedule and doesn't deviate. Now, enough from me. Let's eat!"  


The campers cheered, digging into the food accordingly. The cooks always made an incredible welcome back meal the first night of the summer session, and this night's meal didn't disappoint. It was barbeque. There were heaping plates of smoked brisket, corn on the cob, hot dogs, hamburgers, pasta salad, and fruit salad for dessert. The campers each had their choice of something to drink. Annabeth simply wanted water and found that she wasn't all that hungry.  


She was halfway through her hot dog when someone thumped down onto the seat next to her. Her mouth opened to tell whoever it was to move, that that seat was taken, but then she recognized the face grinning back at her. It was Reyna.  


"Just where have you been?" She demanded when she had actually meant to greet her friend excitedly. First, though, she wanted to know why she had been made to worry for over an hour about the other girl.  


'It's wonderful to see you too, Annie." Reyna laughed good-naturedly. "Yes, we do have a lot to catch up on. I can't believe how many people turned up this year either."  
Annabeth had the good grace to look a bit embarrassed, knowing her friend was right. Those probably should have been the first things they said to each other. But it only lasted a second, for then Annabeth was once again upset that Reyna had made her worry so.  


"Yes, I'm glad to see you! But you're late. I had to endure Leo's sarcasm and Jason and Piper's gross puppy love all by myself," she complained.  


"That does sound awful," Reyna laughed again. "Sorry, I was at Hylla's apartment. She's been moving us into it for a week or so while I was away at school. She wanted me to meet her new girlfriend, Kinsey, while I was there. Lunch ran late, but I'm here, aren't I?"  


Annabeth knew she couldn't blame Reyna for that. Yet some part of her wasn't quite through being angry. Taking a deep breath, she did her best to let it all go. Reyna was right. They were both there, surrounded by their closest friends, ready to start another summer at the most calming place on earth. There were much worse ways for Annabeth to be spending her night. "Girlfriend? But last year she was insisting you meet her boyfriend, Chad."  


"Ah, I forgot to tell you. Hylla recently came out as bisexual. We had all kind of known for a while as she tended to stare at both girls' and guys' asses whenever we went out. But it was good for her to come to the realization on her own, and tell us herself. She's been very happy these past few months." Reyna smiled as she reflected on some memory unknown to Annabeth. She could tell Reyna was glad they had moved on from her being late, though.  


"Hey, you're here!" Percy exclaimed, causing the entire table to erupt into greetings for Reyna. She smiled at them, waving. It was normal for Reyna to put on a calm, even brave at times, façade when people looked to her. Annabeth had always thought she was very leaderly like that, always projecting this image of someone other people could look up to. She really only showed hints of unrestrained emotion when she was alone with Annabeth. But Annabeth could hardly blame her; she was essentially the same way.  


Reyna helped herself to some brisket and fruit salad after their friends had died down. She sat companionably with her best friend, each trying to scrunch almost a year's worth of events into a thirty minute dinner. Annabeth couldn't help but giggle when Reyna impersonated her "monotone" math teacher.  


They finished up eating, traversing the short path that lead to where the bonfire was being held in a tight group. They were ambushed by a small girl with her curly hair flying wildly around her. When she stopped them, Nico cheerfully introduced her as his little sister. Annabeth wasn't sure she had ever seen Nico do anything cheerfully. The girl seemed a bit nervous but took the time to say hi to all of them anyway. Frank and Leo both looked particularly captivated by the new girl. Leo was no surprise since he tended to fall in love with every girl he saw, but shy Frank looking very smitten with Hazel shocked Annabeth a bit.  


They moved along to show Hazel the incredible bonfire the camp built every night. It was like an amphitheater, with all of the rows of seats built into a hill that looked down onto a huge fire pit. The fire itself tended to climb higher and higher as the night wore on, exuding copious amounts of usually unneeded heat. The New York summer nights were generally warm enough without help from a giant fire, yet the campers never complained. The group found seats in the second row. Annabeth was sandwiched in between Percy and Reyna.  


Hazel looked bewildered when all of the campers started singing campfire songs and roasting marshmallows. Nico handed her a gooey s'more though and it seemed to ease her tensions some. Annabeth and Reyna eagerly watched as Nico stepped up into the role of big brother quite nicely.  


"Do you think," Reyna whispered, "it's a little creepy that we're watching him like this?"  


"Yes," Percy said, without looking back at them, before Annabeth had a chance to answer. The girls smacked his arm in sync. He grunted, but they all knew he was doing it more for effect than anything. There was no way muscular Percy could be hurt by a little punch in the arm.  


The moon climbed over the trees, the stars pinpricked the sky. Leo pointed out all of the constellations he knew, all two of them. Annabeth, being something of an expert, helped him out.  


The campers continued to sing in their strangely soothing off-key voices as the minutes slipped by. This had always been Annabeth's favorite part of camp. She had never felt as included as she did sitting around a campfire with kids just like her, singing. Reyna was obviously still tired from her trip as she laid her head onto Annabeth's shoulder to rest her eyes. Thalia raised her eyebrows at her in a look Annabeth didn't quite understand.  


Percy even started to sing when it was almost time to go back to the cabins. Annabeth had to strain to hear him, but the words were there. He sounded a lot better than she was expecting. She moved to tell him this, although she had to halt when she realized moving would mean disturbing Reyna. So she stayed where she was and listened intently as the night drew to a close.  


"Alright, the shower schedules have been posted! Goodnight campers, we'll see you at breakfast. Remember, curfew is at 11:00!" Mr. C. announced. Mr. D. shooed them all back to the cabins to shower and get to bed.  


Annabeth had to rouse Reyna to get them back to the cabins. Reyna was too tired to carry her bags, so Annabeth offered to do it for her. Her friend protested at first, but ultimately her exhaustion won out. Annabeth almost had to support the other girl as they walked. Luckily, Reyna tended to pack light. They pulled up short outside of Reyna's cabin. Reyna hugged the other girl, completely catching her off-guard. Annabeth (once again) didn't have time to so much as comment before Reyna went inside to collapse into bed. Annabeth felt oddly warm as she made her way back to her own cabin.


	3. Excuse Me?

Annabeth was awoken the next morning by the sounds of two campers fighting over bathroom privileges. The second day and already she had to settle a fight. There was nothing quite like being the head of the cabin. Technically, it was the job of their counselor to sort that kind of thing out. But since their counselor that year was Luke, Annabeth figured she was better off handling it herself. 

Luke Castellan was pretty much widely accepted as the most attractive guy at camp. He had arrived at camp two years after Annabeth and Reyna. At nine years old, Annabeth had thought that the new angst filled sixteen year old boy was fascinating. Reyna never seemed to harbor her same infatuation with the older boy. Which was fine by Annabeth since she almost hated to admit that, like so many girls before her, she had fallen for Luke's innate charm and handsome features almost immediately. Unlike the other girls though, Luke also took a liking to Annabeth. Just not in the way she had originally hoped. 

Luke's story was a bit extreme, even for Camp Half-Blood. His father was always traveling, always away. This gave him ample time to cheat on Luke's mother, May. With each woman that his father cheated on her with, Luke's mother went a little more mad. It all came to a peak when his father asked Luke to break up with a woman for him, so his mother wouldn't find out. Luke, aged fifteen, reluctantly agreed. The mistress was, unfortunately, very upset to be broken up with by way of her boyfriend's son and happened to be holding a knife at the time. Not a great combination if you're Luke. The woman left him with a mark that would permanently mar his good lucks. Needless to say, by the time Luke's mom gathered the courage to kick his dad out and send him to camp, Luke was moody and angry at the world. 

Annabeth was like the little sister he never knew he needed. They grew on each other until Annabeth's romantic feelings turned irreversibly platonic. There were a few years, when they were about 10 and 17, when they were just as close as Reyna and Annabeth. She was the one to help Luke deal with all of his repressed rage and get down to the root of the problem: his abandonment issues. 

About the time Annabeth was fourteen/fifteen Luke returned to camp on his summer break from college to be a counselor. He had continued this tradition even after graduating as he liked seeing the camp and visiting Annabeth. Except when Annabeth had hit puberty, his interest in her seemed a little more than brotherly. She had been clear from the first time she had noticed him drooling while she went for a swim in her new bikini that she only ever wanted to be friends. He seemed to accept this, but that didn't stop him from flirting. 

Reyna and Thalia found several things about this setup odd: 1) Luke, technically, was way too old to have had a crush on Annabeth since the time she was a freshman in high school and 2) With that said, was Annabeth a complete idiot? Dozens of girls in the camp would kill to be in her position. Meanwhile, she kept Luke at arm's length. Annabeth was the only real girl he showed genuine interest in. He slept with a pretty eighteen year old now and again, but there was never anything serious. Annabeth was the one girl he had stuck with for nearly four years.

"The rest of us are going to breakfast. I want you two to sort this out before joining us, otherwise neither of you get to eat. And I hear the cooks made French toast this morning, so it would be a real shame if you had to miss that over shower times." Annabeth knew this should settle the matter quickly. No one wanted to miss French toast day. 

"Fine," the two girls grumbled. By the time everyone else was dressed, the girls had worked it out. Annabeth smiled at them like a proud mother as they all filed out towards the wafting the smells of cinnamon and syrupy goodness. Annabeth brought up the back of the line. She was searching the other cabins' lines for her friends when she felt someone slip an arm around her shoulders. She turned, expecting to see Percy or Leo. Luke's cool blue eyes met her gaze. 

"Good morning, Annie," He greeted her brightly. Exasperated, she slipped out of his grasp. He talked on, unfazed. "I haven't seen you yet this year. When'd you get in? I thought you might stop by my bunk for a chat, but you never did." 

"I just got here yesterday. If you wanted to see me, you should have come to dinner or the bonfire instead of raiding the camp store with the Stoll brothers. As for me not visiting your cabin, no girl that plans on keeping her underwear on for the entire visit goes to see you there." She could have said all of this harshly, but she kept her tone light like she always did when shutting down Luke's advances. 

This, much to her dismay, never seemed to deter Luke in the slightest, even if she did try to keep it light-hearted. "Do I make you that nervous, Annie? I knew you couldn't resist me. No one can." He puffed out his chest and wiggled his eyebrows. His words were cocky, but they didn't match his goofy demeanor. Annabeth only scoffed and rolled her eyes before speeding up to walk in front of him. He caught up easily enough. 

He was about to say something more until he caught sight of the Stoll brothers. Connor and Travis Stoll were twin brothers around Annabeth's age that had been sent to the camp by their mother after their dad, a well-known and well-practiced thief, had been sent to prison for robbing several banks. They looked pretty much identical: they both had brown eyes, pointy ears, sharp features, and brown mops of curls that covered most of their heads. They were tall and lanky and always up to something. Luke had taken a liking to them right about the time he stopped seeing Annabeth as only a friend. 

Luke briefly bid Annabeth a goodbye and said something about stopping by his bunk before he ran off to meet them. With a disgusted sigh, Annabeth slid into her place at her friend's breakfast table. With a quick scan of the crowd, she ascertained that her entire cabin had made it, and she could relax. 

"What were you doing talking to him?" Percy asked, eyeing Luke with the same level of disgust one usually reserves for week old garbage that's been sitting in the heat. 

"Come on, Percy. Luke and I have been friends for a long time. He's harmless." Alright, so that wasn't exactly true, but she could handle Luke. It wasn't like he was some kind of sex fiend she had to look out for. They were friends. Luke just liked to put on a show for his guy friends. 

Percy gave her a dubious look. Thalia piped up with, "You know how I hate to agree with Percy on anything, but he's right. Luke's hot, but don't you think it's a little creepy that for the past few years he's been pining over a minor?" They were both looking at her with a mixture of concern and disbelief. She squirmed a little, uncomfortable under their intense looks. 

"C'mon, guys! It's just Luke. He's only playing. We've known each other long enough that it'd be weird for him to actually feel that way." Saying that made something nag her at the back of her mind. Did knowing someone a long time really mean harboring feelings for them was futile and a little weird? She locked that thought away for further inspection, along with finding out the reason why thinking that had bothered her so much. 

"Are you sure? Sometimes it only takes being someone's friend a really long time to suddenly make you realize that you don't look at them as a friend anymore. I need you to tell me right now that you honestly think there's no reason we should be putting any real stock into the creepy comments Luke makes to you or about you," Thalia was in mother-mode, her face serious and her voice steady. 

Sometimes all it takes is being someone's friend for a really long time to suddenly make you realize that you don't look at them as a friend anymore? Annabeth thought. She was so wrapped up in her thoughts about that, that she almost forgot that Thalia had asked for her confirmation that Luke was harmless. Then something else Thalia had said came back to her. 

"Wait, comments he's made about me? What do you mean?" Percy quickly looked away, the tops of his ears pinking. Thalia's eyes widened so much, Annabeth was sure they'd pop out of her skull. She tried to change the subject, but Annabeth wouldn't let her. 

When she got nowhere with Percy and Thalia, she turned to Leo. "What exactly has Luke been saying about me to people?" 

"Oh no. I'd prefer to keep my tongue, so I'm not about to be the person to tell you." This only made her want to know it more than ever. 

"Jason. Piper. I want to know exactly what you've heard Luke say about me." Jason looked like a deer caught in headlights. Piper seemed just as confused as Annabeth. She nudged Jason, telling him to answer Annabeth, when she realized he knew something. 

Jason cleared his throat, clearly uncomfortable. "Uh, not much. Sometimes people bring you up, and he talks about what you look like in your bathing suit and stuff. Just that you're really hot and stuff. I don't know, I guess he likes you and stuff." Jason's face had gone as red as the apple in his hand. Piper cut him off, begging him to stop saying "and stuff", that they had gotten the message. He looked relieved to not have to say more, which made Annabeth wonder as to the specifics of what had been said about her. When she saw Luke again, she was going to kill him for this. 

"Alright, so he might be something of a problem. But it's nothing that I can't handle!" Percy rolled his eyes at her stubbornness. 

Reyna arrived just as they finished up talking about Luke. She only caught Annabeth's final comment. "Who's a problem, and why are we handling him?" She asked, popping a grape into her mouth. 

Percy answered for Annabeth. "That creep Luke is hanging around Annabeth again. And Annabeth just found out that he's been going around saying stuff about her, as well as making comments to her face. Back us up here, doesn't Annabeth need to be taking him a little more seriously?" 

Reyna's face twisted into a rare look of hatred at the mention of Luke. "That slimy fucker has been harassing you, and you didn't tell me? God, I don't even want to know what he's been saying. That guy needs to get the shit kicked out of him for the stuff he pulls around here without anyone saying anything," She spoke with vehement. Percy, Thalia, and Annabeth all stared at her, shocked. It was rare for Reyna to cuss, much less use the f word. And she never wanted to resort to violence first. Reyna was much too diplomatic for that. 

"Excuse me," Luke interrupted, standing behind Reyna, and looking equal parts insulted and outraged.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, guys! Admittedly, I've never written a fanfic before, so I'm not entirely sure if I'm doing this right. I'm kind of excited to see where this goes, and I hope you guys are too! Thanks so much for reading and I hope to upload the next chapter soon.


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